Case Number 24335

THE GIRL FROM THE NAKED EYE

The Charge

How far would you go if the only girl you ever loved was murdered?

Opening Statement

Bobby: "So what do you want?" Jake: "Justice."

Facts of the Case

Jake (Jason Yee) is a driver/bodyguard working for The Naked Eye, a strip
club that acts as the front for a prostitution ring. When Jake's current charge,
Sandy (Samantha Streets), whom he has developed feelings for, is murdered, he is
consumed with rage and sets out to find her killer.

Jake soon realizes that if he is to have any hope of bringing Sandy's killer
to justice, he must go up against his own employer (Ron Yuan, Fast and
Furious), as well as a corrupt cop (Gary Stretch, Dead Man's Shoes)
who is prepared to conceal the truth at all costs.

The Evidence

The Girl From The Naked Eye looks like a million dollars. Adopting a
comic book-meets-film-noir aesthetic, director David Ren's movie -- which he
co-wrote with star Jason Yee and Larry Madhill -- is visually resplendent,
recalling Robert Rodriguez's Sin City, as well as the more recent
Bunkaru. In fact, the comparisons to Bunraku go beyond their
similar appearances, as both films attempt to hide their numerous shortcomings
behind eyeball-piercing visuals in the hope that nobody will notice the lack of
substance.

The melding of a martial arts element to this already potent mix of comic
books and film noir should have been the icing on the cake, but like everything
else about The Girl From The Naked Eye, even this falls flat. The
choreography is fine, and the actors -- particularly Yee -- are accomplished
ass-kickers. The problem is that there is no sense of urgency to these rumbles,
resulting in supposedly big action scenes appearing to be a yard off the pace.
What should have been a showstopper (not to mention a clear nod to
Oldboy), in which Jake takes on a corridor full of goons, moves at a
snailâ€™s pace. It's like playing the latest computer game on your
five-year-old PC, and appears labored, rather than inspired.

The film is full of awfully stilted dialogue; with Yee's gruff narration
being made up of one cliché after another. It soon becomes tiresome, and
highlights the uneasy shoehorning of genres into the film. What worked so well
in Sin City and added to that film's gritty edge is an unnecessary
addition here, and there's a good argument that The Girl From The Naked
Eye would flow a whole lot better had the noir elements been left out all
together.

A movie like this relies on word of mouth to find itself an audience, but
it's so forgettable that recommendations will be few and far between. To call
the film flat out awful would be unjust, but the lack of anything memorable
means that it will all but be forgotten within hours of seeing it.

The cast is generally solid, with Yee making for a decent leading man. Given
the right material, there's no reason Yee cannot move on to bigger and better
things. Yuan and Stretch make for suitably detestable villains, while Streets
does well to bring an innocence to the role of Sandy that at least makes Jake's
feelings for her understandable.

Director David Ren deserves all the praise he receives for delivering such a
stylish-looking flick. Each and every scene has clearly been labored over, and
looks like it cost five times what it took to film. It's just a shame that the
story -- not to mention the alarmingly sedate action scenes -- can't match the
film's visual prowess. I've no doubt that, given a better quality of writing
partner, Ren could go on to produce a far more successful picture.

The DVD is lacking any special features, but does sport a top-rate standard
definition 2.35:1 anamorphic widescreen transfer. Blacks levels are excellent,
as are colors. The picture is razor-sharp, packing in a high level of detail.
The Dolby 5.1 Surround track delivers clear dialogue, and composer Danny Manor's
surprisingly good score. There are no extras.

Closing Statement

The Girl From The Naked Eye is a lot like going a date with the woman
or man of your dreams, only to find they're a bit boring and far too reliant on
their looks to get by.